There is no mystery to furnishing an HMO but in a saturated market, you need to stand out. One thing you should think about is the bed you provide. A smaller bed will discourage your tenants from letting another person stay in the room with them, a scenario that could land a licensed landlord in trouble.
Property Expert Series: Dale Wild from Pegasus Property Investments & Landlord Co.
- Part 1: Introducing Dale Wild from Pegasus Investments and Landlord Furniture Co.
- Part 2: What Projects Are Pegasus Investments Working On and Why?
- Part 3: What Is An HMO?
- Part 4: What Furniture Should You be Providing in an HMO?
- Part 5: What Colour Schemes Work Best for HMOs?
- Part 6: Is it Better to Put Up Blinds or Curtains in an HMO?
- Part 7: What Type of Beds Should Investors Use in Their HMOs?
- Part 8: How Much Should a Landlord Budget to Furnish an HMO?
- Part 9: How to Give Your HMOs the WOW Factor
- Part 10: How To Invest in HMOs
- Part 11: What Do Landlords Need to Know About HMO Licensing?
- Part 12: What Has Been Your Biggest Mistake in Property Investment?
- Part 13: What Has Been Your Biggest Win in Property?
- Part 14: How Does the Cashflow from HMOs Compare to Buy-to-Lets?
Furniture for HMOs
Amy: What sort of furniture should you be providing in an HMO as standard, would you say?
Dale: As standard, our main furniture pack that goes out has a four-foot double bed.
A lot of landlords choose the four-foot bed. This is especially true for licensed landlords who have a single occupancy licence per room.
So, if it’s got five-person HMO then only five people can live there.
With a four-foot bed, you’re less inclined to invite your girlfriend over.
Amy: To move in.
Dale: To move in. “Come and move into my house, it’s great. I’ve got one bedroom and that’s it.”
So, double wardrobe, a chest, a bedside table. Quite a few people include desks as well. And then the trick is just to decorate the place nicely with a good finish so people want to live there.
I genuinely think everything in the property game is a people’s game, you work with people.
And when someone walks in, if you’ve got nice, friendly face… Maybe I shouldn’t do any viewings then.
If the service is great from start to finish, then they get to see the room and go, ‘Wow, this is really good’.
“The landlord seems a good egg and the agent seems like a good person.”
It kind of sells itself.
Amy: And you’ve got to go a little bit over-and-above now. Like we’ve talked in previous videos about the saturation that some places are seeing with houses of multiple occupancy.
You need to have a bit of a wow factor with your HMOs. You need to make them look nice.
It’s not enough to just let out a room and leave it empty and hope for the best, in some areas anyway, it’s getting very saturated.
I know your properties always stand out and there are a few different things you do and a few different bits of furniture that jazz things up a bit and I think that’s really important.
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